Gragnano in Corsa, true essence of Italy's pasta capital.

When we talk about pasta in Italy, we must always put its capital first: Gragnano. A town perched on the Lattari Mountains that separates it from the beautiful Sorrento peninsula and the Amalfi coast. A town where even today, you can smell the aroma of pasta drying in the morning hours. People who have tied their lives to this magical mixture of high-quality durum wheat semolina and the true richness of this land: the water that flows pure from the Forma and Imbuto springs. Delicious to drink, oligomineral native from limestone rocks and volcanic tuffs. Gragnano is considered the city of white gold and there are documents from the 1400s that attest to its pasta-making vocation. 

A town built to become an open-air drying house. Roads that open up to the sea and gradually narrow to feed stronger air currents. Streets that were bustling with pasta factories (read the history of scialatielli) and wooden supports where stretches of spaghetti and wire fusilli fell, or wooden trays of rigatoni and lumaconi. Even today, if you look at the portals of the buildings, at every entrance you will find the ancient symbol of the Varmicellari guild (here we have written the history of Gragnano pasta). Gragnano is a treasure trove of history and goodness. Ready to open a new Pasta Museum as it deserves. 

The mills that worked the wheat are still there, and some beautifully restored ones give us an idea of what the ancient valley of the mills was like. We made this beautiful journey with Vincenzo Petrone: through the soul of his story, we touched the semolina and drank from the source of the water that has transformed this area into a global icon of nutrition. Vincenzo is the owner of the precious Gragnano in Corsa pasta factory, located in an ancient Vermicellari palace. 

With his son Ciro Dario and his family, he carries on the ancient tradition of pasta. Small laboratories, one for long pasta and one for short pasta, located in different places, as has always been done in this town where everyone is engaged in production. The special shapes are still handmade and, in fact, if you look at them, there isn’t one that is the same as the other. The Lumaconi, ‘O Siscariello, the Scialatielli, the Candele, the Mafalde, the long double spaghetti that still have the imprint of the curve taken from the stick to which they are hung (do you want to know the strangest shapes of Gragnano Pasta?). 

Vincenzo Petrone, in addition to being an excellent modern vermicellaro, is also a great running enthusiast and has participated in all the most important marathons in the world: New York, Boston, Stockholm, Rome, Valencia, etc. Pasta and running have become his passions that he wanted to immortalize in his brand. 

His pasta has been rated by the best experts as one of the top five in Gragnano in terms of taste, identity, and use in Italian haute cuisine. “I am very happy to be part of the Spaghetti & Mandolino project – Vincenzo Petrone states – and I will ensure a product of the highest quality for everyone. Also because with the name that this project carries, in terms of pasta, you can't go wrong!” 

Finally, starting today, you can begin to book the legendary pasta from Gragnano produced with water directly channeled from the Lattari Mountains and from selections of the highest quality Apulian wheat. We at Spaghetti & Mandolino are extremely happy to have such a prestigious brand with us that will help us promote gastronomic culture at your tables in Italy and around the world. 

Bernardo Pasquali

S&M